FUNDAMENTAL CHEMICAL LAWS

• Phlogiston - universal component of fire that came from a Greek word for inflammable - introduced by a german scientist, Georg Ernst Stahl in early 18th century
• Stahl described that every combustible substance contained a specific amount of phlogiston
• Antoine Lavoisier - French chemist in late 18th century - made the first breakthrough in chemical reaction - concluded that combustion involves the reaction of a metal or organic substance to a "common air" - oxygene (oxygen) after a visit to Joseph Priestly
• Fundamental Laws of Matter:

  1. Law of Conservation of Mass (Lavoisier)
  2. Law of Constant (Definite) Composition
  3. Law of Multiple Proportion
• Law of Conservation of Mass

  • states that matter can be neither created nor destroyed
  • total mass of the reactant is the same as the total mass of the products
• Law of Constant (Definite) Composition:

  • if a pure compound is broken down into its constituent elements, the masses of the constituents will always have the same proportions, regardless of the quantity or source of the original substance
  • sodium chloride - 1:1 ratio for sodium and chloride ions
  • 1 g of sodium: 8g of chlorine = 2 g of sodium: 16g of chlorine
  • 1g + 8g = 9g - mass ratio for a compound is a constant
• Law of Multiple Proportion

  • when two elements form a series of compounds, the masses of one that combined with a fixed mass of the other are in the ratio of (small) integers to each other
• Difference between law of constant composition & law of multiple proportion:

  • law of constant composition focuses on specific compound's fixed elemental proportion
  • law of multiple proportion - simple-whole number ratios of elements in different compounds formed by the same elements